You’ve probably seen it several times already: a website announces it is “pivoting to video.” It’s an eye-roll inducing cliche that nonetheless looms over the industry like a specter.
No one wants to read anymore, the conventional wisdom goes, and so it is that as digital outlets scramble to make money in an increasingly fractured media landscape, sites fire writers and turn to their new one true savior: Video.
Fox Sports axed 20 writing positions in June to focus on video. And millennial-focused news site Mic followed suit in August, laying off 25 members of its editorial staff.